Iraqis Gassed Kurd Villages, Probe Finds

Investigators for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported today that “overwhelming evidence exists” that Iraq subjected Kurdish villages to three days of poison gas attacks last month to break a strong insurgency by the Kurdish minority.

Basing their conclusions mainly on interviews with hundreds of witnesses among the 65,000 Kurds who fled across Iraq’s border with Turkey, the investigators concluded that the attacks were part of a deliberate policy by Iraq to end a strong Kurdish insurgency by depopulating the Kurdish regions of Iraq.

“We find no question that Iraq’s policy in Kurdistan has the characteristics of genocide,” the two staff members, Peter W. Galbraith and Christopher Von Hollen Jr., conclude in a report to Foreign Relations Chairman Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.).

Sanctions Urged

Pell, at a news conference, urged the House to quickly pass legislation, already adopted by the Senate, “to impose sanctions on Iraq as long as it continues to use chemical weapons and continues to pursue policies that may be genocidal in nature.”

Iraq has denied that it employed chemical weapons against the Kurds.

The foreign relations staff report uses dozens of eyewitness accounts of the alleged chemical attacks.

“As described by the villagers, the bombs that fell on the morning of Aug. 25 did not produce a loud explosion,” the report said.

Color, Smell Described

“Only a weak sound could be heard and then a yellowish cloud spread out from the center of the explosion and became a thin mist. The air became mixed with a mixture of smells--’bad garlic,’ ‘rotten onions’ and ‘bad apples.’

“Those who were very close to the bombs died instantly. Those who did not die instantly found it difficult to breathe and began to vomit. The gas stung the eyes, skin and lungs of the villagers exposed to it. Many suffered temporary blindness.

“After the bombs exploded, many villagers ran and submerged their faces in nearby streams to escape the spreading gas. Many of those who made it to the streams survived. Those who could not run from the growing smell, mostly the very old and the very young, died.” Galbraith and Von Hollen say the chemical attacks continued on Aug. 26 and Aug. 27 and conclude that “no area in the northeastern reaches of Iraqi Kurdistan was safe from chemical attack.”